Property Seminars Are A Waste Of Time And Money

Yeah, I said it, and I’ll say it again. Property Seminars are a big, fat waste of time and money. Pffft.

I went to one on Friday for one reason, and one reason only, and it sure as hell wasn’t to learn anything new; it was so I could mumble about my experience on here. I’ve always assumed property seminars were a waste of time and money, but I didn’t want to raise the issue because my defense would have been baseless. Now I’ve been to one, I can comfortably express myself- property seminars are SHIT. Granted, my opinion is based on a very limited scale- one seminar, to be exact. However, at least I have something to base it on now. I’m guessing most of them are quite similar anyways.

I’m not going to name and shame the seminar I went to, because I’ve already had a few companies threaten me with legal action. I supposedly said untrue things about their sorry excuse for a company (everything I said was true, just for the record). The legal bods call it “defamation”. Yeah, sure.

The seminar costs £300 for a full day of lecturing. Obviously I didn’t pay that, I was invited as a guest (ok, so perhaps there was more than one reason why I attended). I don’t know about you, but £300 is a lot of money to me. That’s like a full tank of petrol these days. I’ve seen other seminars charge way more. Inside Track’s two-day training courses start at around £2,500. It is the biggest property investment education company in the country, with associated businesses including property finding, buy-to-let mortgage broking and a ‘landlords and lettings’ service.

£2,500? That will pay for legal fees and stamp duty on a property, and a holiday to unwind after a stressful purchase.

Doesn’t sound all that impressive, does it? Let’s be real, almost all the information taught, costing hundreds/thousands of pounds, could be found for free, or at little cost, on the internet or in books. I didn’t rely on any seminars to learn the property industry; I just read forums, blogs and watched Property Ladder :)

I honestly didn’t learn anything new from the seminar. I appreciate that some people walked away with a few new, vital nuggets of information, but it was nothing they couldn’t have learned after 5mins of surfing online. My point is that there is plenty to walk away with from the seminars, especially for the mere mortals that aren’t newly coming accustom to the industry. However, the price you pay for the knowledge can’t be justified. From what I experienced, all the information provided was all so basic; I spent half the time wondering where the value for money was. I mean, a lecturer spent 60mins explaining the difference between interest-only and repayment mortgages. ONE HOUR!!!

“With interest-only mortgages you only pay the interest on your loan each month. The entire loan needs to be paid by the end of the mortgage period (typically 25years).

With repayment mortgages you pay the interest and a portion of the outstanding balance with every mortgage payment, consequently reducing the amount owed on a monthly basis. By the time the mortgage period is over (typically 25years), the debt will be cleared, without having to make a huge final payment.”

HOW LONG DID THAT TAKE? 1 min. The lecturer didn’t even get into detail; he didn’t mention anything about overpayments- which are a pretty big deal with mortgages as far as I’m concerned. Anyways, that was just one example out of a thousand.

To be honest, it just seemed like one big scam. The speakers were always trying to sell their own products, whether it was legal services or actual properties. It totally diluted the quality of the seminar for me. Apparently the £300 fee alone wasn’t enough for their heavy pockets, they wanted more. I wasn’t surprised though.

In a nutshell, property seminars are ideal for rich people that have spare time and are too lazy to do their own research. If you’re not rich and you’re investing in seminars, then you need to stop being so damn lazy, because that extra cash could be put to much better use.

The best thing about the damn day was free servicing of coffee and chocolate chip cookies. Of course, for £300, I expected Irish Coffee on tap and Belgium chocolates.

Has anyone else had any experiences with Property Seminars? I’ve yet to actually hear a positive review from someone that doesn’t endorse seminars due to personal financial gain…

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9 Comments- Join The Conversation...

Simon15th April, 2008 @ 12:40

Funny you mention about these so called property lectures I was invited to go to one at a hugely reduced price. I declined but was entered into a prize draw which, amazingly I seem to have won a holiday!

I won't be following up on it as I feel these people as as big a con merchants as time shares!

1

The Landlord16th April, 2008 @ 08:57

Hey Simon,

You know, have you noticed that EVERY property seminar are always offering massive savings! It's a not-so-clever marketing ploy to make the deal seem attractive. Kind of like one of those tacky junk shops that have a sale on all year round!

haha, what's funny is that at the seminar there were loads of free prize draws to enter, all you had to do was submit a business card! Yeah, riiight! Hello junkmail!

2

Moki8th April, 2014 @ 16:03

Ohhh men you made my day.
I was planing to go in two days time for a seminar.
Well not any more.
We need more people like you
Say the truth and do not go to seminars:)
Moki

3

Tom18th May, 2015 @ 15:03

What ones are the best if someone wanted to attend one? I heard Progressive Property and Wealth Dragons. Do you agree?

4

Sam27th December, 2016 @ 00:31

It’s a scam! They’re con artists. I paid thousands for their consultancy as they promised they would help me with my business and guarantee profits, but they made promises that they couldn’t keep and I lost out on the money. Be wary of Shaa Wasmund and her team as well. They introduce Wealth Dragons, but they all get a cut of it. They are out to make money out of us. Dishonest. Disgusting. She introduces him and guarantees that he will make profits 3 times. They need to make an honest living. I have known many people who have been upset from their courses and they have paid people to socially promote and add comments on their ads on Facebook.
More and more people will be conned by these people. They are wealthy because they con you in believing that you can be rich easily if you follow their formula, they are tapping into your dreams, and will rip you off. They have no moral consciences — don’t know how they can sleep at night. They encourage you to get out loans and get into debts — which is irresponsible especially if you can’t pay your rent and bills.
Shame on John Lee and his buddies. May they serve their sentence in hell.

5

NIck6th July, 2017 @ 15:08

Amazing that people fall for this stuff. There's one born every minute. I just received a marketing email from one of these companies telling me I can make a fortune investing in property without having access to any money in the first place. Yeah, right. Except the money I need to go on their training seminar, of course!

6

Rob22nd October, 2018 @ 13:04

I went to their seminar during the seminar they said if you uploaded comments to facebook or added photos to the facebook page about the seminar you could win a book that they published. Most people just wrote how amazing they were (maybe they did think they were amazing) but maybe they wanted to win the book . To be honest it was an amazing way to increase your coverage.

7

graham4th December, 2018 @ 18:04

Im new to property investment, went to one of these and immediately realised they were just selling education.....it was linked with two numpties, some Olympic geezers....so I emailed them direct and asked why they were involved with this dodgy outfit....odd....no response....lmao....no surprise....looked at reviews for this bunch of crooks and they were all bad....since then ive watched some initial info, especially on first four houses run by tony law....now...ok, to me he seems a fair geezer....but I don't think im going to be paying him £800 for a property course that I don't think will actually tell me how to find a below market value property, as this seems to be the trick according to many of these types, RMP and the like, who also offer training....grief, just seems a training nightmare...
anyway...im blathering on....im going to go along to a local meeting, even got to pay for that....tho only £20....ive got lots of info from the net but at the moment it just seems I don't know what to do with it or how....and it seems to me its the how bit that is important...find a desperate seller they say....how?....if you've done this for a few years im guessing you know how to do the business, or should...but as a starter its a bit daunting....

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